The return home for summer break after eight months of freedom at college is quite possibly the rudest awakening in existence.

When I'm up at school, I can do pretty much whatever I want. If I want to go get food at 3 am with my friends, I just go. When I'm home, my mom wants to know what I'm up to during the day and I have to ask permission to go out at night.

When I first came home, I had a hard time with the newly restrictive life. To my mom's credit, the rules are a lot more relaxed than they were when I was in high school, so she's done her part to strike a balance between being respectful of household rules and allowing me to have somewhat similar freedom to what I have at college. Even so, to me, it felt like climbing inside a jail cell.

A week or so after I got home, my best friend texted me asking if I wanted to go to Athens that night to see her. Of course I wanted to, and if I'd been at school, I could have gone to see anyone I wanted and my parents never would have known. I knew that because I was home I had to ask my parents, and they said no. In all honesty, I was incredibly angry. I didn't understand why they were being so restrictive and refusing to let me go have fun with my friend.

After thinking about it and reflecting a little, I realized that all my parents want to do is keep me safe. They worry about me when I'm at college, so when I'm home they take steps to limit how much they have to worry. Even if it drives me crazy sometimes, I can respect their decisions as long as they're made with the intent to keep me safe and stop me from making a decision I'd later regret.

And to all you college students living at home for the summer: cut your parents some slack. They just want you to be safe and happy.